Schools reopen under strict health regulations
Herald Reporters
Examination classes went smoothly back to school yesterday with teachers and pupils following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
The three examination classes, Grade 7, Form 4 and Form 6, opened yesterday after President Mnangagwa and the health authorities cleared the schools reopening soon after the relaxation of the lockdown level.
The rest of the classes go back on Monday next week.
In Harare yesterday morning schools visited by The Herald had opened their education doors, and pupils were being checked for temperature and sanitising hands at the gate before admission. Everyone was wearing a facemask and no one was crowding.
A lot is at stake!
The Government announced the phased reopening, following the fall in Covid-19 infection rates and the successful preparations done in all schools to ensure a safe learning environment.
Teachers for examination classes Grade Seven, Form Four and Upper Sixth are already back at school while the rest of the teaching staff returns to work on March 17.
Other students are expected to be back in class on Monday March 22.
Unsurprisingly, the move has largely been applauded.
However, education experts warn authorities should not be tempted to treat resumption of class like “business as usual”.
The Covid-19 induced long break, stretching close to a year for many students, is believed to have had adverse effects on pupils.
Patna: Help is pouring in for Palani Kumari, a poor schoolgirl who was found selling plants on the streets to pay for her education at a local government school in Jharkhand state. The little girl has a dream she wants to become a nurse to serve humanity.
People from all walks of life from Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren to industrialist Gautam Adani began offering help to the Grade Seven schoolgirl after a local journalist tweeted about her story.
“Palani Kumari studies in Grade seven and wants to become a nurse to serve humanity. She was only 18-month-old when her father left for heavenly abode. She sells gram plants along the road and her mother at the bus stop so that she could continue her study. Please help her,” the journalist tweeted on February 25. The girl had cleared the Grade six examinations with 75 per cent marks.
By Anna Chibamu
THERE is an urgent need for government to improve the welfare of teachers before schools reopen, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Education has said.
This is one of its recommendations contained in a report on the preparedness of schools to reopen for the 2021 academic year.
The reopening of schools was early this year postponed after the country recorded a spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths following a second wave of the pandemic.
Presenting its report before House of Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda, the portfolio committee chairperson, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said besides revisiting the teachers’ welfare concerns, there was need for government to also prioritise Covid-19 vaccination for teachers since they are frontline workers in the education sector.